Radiology Faculty--Answering Questions/"AMA"

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We like to see at least one Honors score among the "top 4" core clerkships: Surgery, IM, Peds, OB/Gyn. Alternatively, a few high passes. Only having pass gives you a lower "clinical score" and makes it more difficult for you to get an interview.

General answer: Yes--if your school is rigorous and more than 50% of students in a clerkship are getting pass, then it gets "upgraded". Not so much if 40% of students are getting pass and you are consistently in that "bottom 40%".

Detailed answer: Using Excel, we've built a complicated "clerkship score translator" based on % honors and % high pass as articulated in the Dean's letter, so honors-high pass-pass get translated into numeric scores of 5-3-1. Honors gets 5 points if <25% of students got honors; if 25-40% got honors, you get 4 points; if 40-50% get honors, you get 3 points; if >50% get honors, you get 2 points. If there is a score of high pass, but the honors+high pass % exceeds 75%, we treat that like a pass (1 point). If honors+high pass is <40%, you get a 4 for high pass. Again, if honors+high pass % is over 50%, you'll get a 2 for the high pass. If more than 50% of the students in the clerkship are getting pass, you'll get 1.5 points for that score. If less than 20% of the students in the clerkship are getting pass, you'll actually only get 0.5 points.

We calculate a mean score for your four core clerkships--if your mean score is "1" (i.e., pass), you probably aren't going to get an interview with us, since there is no way for your USMLE score to make up for it (since we "dampen down" USMLE scores above 255, meaning your USMLE score is basically considered the same if you get a 255 or a 270--it's darn good and good enough). There are plenty of 240 USMLE applicants with "mean clerkship scores" above 1.5 and your 270 USMLE with mean clerkship of 1 won't exceed them in our approach.

It's probably way too complicated, but it helps me feel better trying to compare candidates from different schools in terms of who gets the invitation. Otherwise, the students at schools where clinical grades are more rigorous get hurt. Remember, the clinical score is where we also do some adjustments for "strength of school" (see posts #116 and #117 ).

As I've mentioned before, once you interview, your interview and our assessment of "critical behaviors" factor in much more.
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Thank you for your detailed response. Still have some core clerkships I can try my best in.
 
You mentioned that your mean Step 1 + Step 2 is 494; what's your average value for clinical grades, using the scale you described? Thanks!
 
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For last year:
USMLE score: mean 494, median 498, standard deviation 18
Clinical score: mean 493, median 494, standard deviation 30 (remember, this is a formulaic score, so we have concocted it to essentially be comparable to mean/median USMLE)

Note: the standard deviations given above are for the people we interviewed, NOT the entire applicant pool.

As you can see, if you are one standard deviation below the mean clinical score, you have to be about 1.5 standard deviations above on the USMLE score to "catch up" to average. On the other hand, if you are two standard deviations below on the USMLE score, you only need to be a little over 1 standard deviation above the mean clinical score to "catch up" to average. If you had outstanding clinical performance, you could be at the lowest level of our USMLE and still be near the top of our interview list.

Last year, the lowest USMLE score we interviewed was 442 (221 step 1, didn't submit step 2), and the lowest clinical score we interviewed was 442 (all pass clinical score where pass scores given to about 25% of class , med school not in top 40, but local candidate so we bumped the person up for interview purposes--though ended up not ranking that person due to unimpressive interview score).
 
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What would that be on the 1-5 scale you described above? Interesting that the variance is so much higher in clinical grades.
 
It should be expected that the variance in the USMLE score is lower because we have a USMLE threshold below which we generally don't look at candidates and because we truncate the number of points you get for your USMLE for scores over 250. The candidate who actually got 269 on step 1 only got 257 points toward our USMLE score. The candidate who got 250 on step 1 got the full 250 points toward our USMLE score. We do this because we think there isn't a meaningful difference in the quality of the applicant's "smarts" when the candidate gets 250 vs. 270, and we don't want overperformance on USMLE to outweigh relatively low clinical score and interview score when we add up the scores.

The median clinical GPA for our interviewees was 2.75. Remember, that gets slightly adjusted based on strength of school to give us a "clinical score". The median clinical score was 494.

I'll give you the "real world" metrics for 3 of the individuals who were at the median by giving you the following:
1. Surgery grade with % of students who get Honors/High Pass and how it scored in our system
2. Medicine grade as above
3. Peds grade as above
4. OB/Gyn grade as above

Individual A: school rank around 50-60
1. High Pass. 45%/55% = 1
2. High Pass. 22%/42% = 2
3. Honors 25%/30% = 4
4. Honors. 30%/60% = 4

Individual B: school rank around 50-60
1. Honors 15%/30% = 5
2. High Pass 10%/50% = 2
3. High Pass 10%/45% = 2
4. High Pass 20%/50% = 2

Individual C: school rank top 20
1. Honors 32%/25% = 4
2. Honors 38%/41% = 4
3. High Pass 33%/47% = 1
4. High Pass 47%/42% = 1
 
I'm corresponding author on a paper (a rads project, so pretty relevant). I'm very proud to earn this authorship, but I don't know if it's just my pride and not common sense that makes me want to mention this on ERAS. If I put in the research experiences section something like: "Role in project was blah blah. Corresponding author on a manuscript, "Does medical student neuroticism ever end? A prospective study"", do you think that will make me look really pretentious or weird? Should I just leave the corresponding part out?

Thanks in advance!
 
RadiologyPD, I have decided to apply for radiology pretty late. I have a letter from internal medicine attending that stated that I was applying for internal medicine residency. Would it be okay to submit this letter?
 
Hey RadiologyPD, I have a question about applying to both IR/DR and DR at the same residency program. I've heard two very different view points on this. On one side, I've heard that you don't want to apply to two different specialties at a single institution, IR/DR and DR being no exception. I've also heard that IR/DR programs like to see that you are applying to DR as well to show commitment to DR and willingness to do that if need be. What are your thoughts on this?

Also, I am wondering what DR program directors think of an applicant applying to IR/DR at the same institution.
 
AntonFreeman said:
RadiologyPD, I have decided to apply for radiology pretty late. I have a letter from internal medicine attending that stated that I was applying for internal medicine residency. Would it be okay to submit this letter?
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Yes, it's ok. Make some mention in the PS about your late switch and why you did it. Shouldn't dominate the whole PS, just address/dismiss as succinctly and eloquently as possible.

LittleFoot said:
Hey RadiologyPD, I have a question about applying to both IR/DR and DR at the same residency program. I've heard two very different view points on this. On one side, I've heard that you don't want to apply to two different specialties at a single institution, IR/DR and DR being no exception. I've also heard that IR/DR programs like to see that you are applying to DR as well to show commitment to DR and willingness to do that if need be. What are your thoughts on this?

Also, I am wondering what DR program directors think of an applicant applying to IR/DR at the same institution.
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Not a problem. IR/DR and DR go hand in hand. You can be interested in procedural care and be thrilled with a career in DR. Similarly, you should reasonably enjoy/value the diagnostic side of things even if you are going into IR. I chuckle at the hubris of medical students and IR applicants/trainees who claim to hate DR. Good luck with that...
 
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I am a former programmer and I'm hoping to help develop artificial intelligence to augment radiology - is this something PDs want to hear or are they against AI and should I be discouraged from mentioning this?
 
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Hi. Thanks so much for doing this.
I'm currently a PGY-1 in a transitional year. I applied to radiology and PM&R as a backup. I received about 20 rads invites from mid-low tier programs. But after being discouraged by many in the field (including a few PDs on interviews) I ended up foolishly ranking PM&R first and now am matched to a PGY-2 spot in PM&R starting in July. I deeply regret what I did as it was an impulsive and panicked decision. Have I essentially burned all my bridges at this point? Or is there some way for me to get back on track to be a radiologist? Thank you so much.


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No, you have not burned any bridges.

I'm not familiar with the "rules" for what you need to do to get out of your commitment to your PM&R spot. The Match has rules requiring you to start your matched PGY-1 program, but I can't remember if they apply to your first year in an Advanced Program when you are a PGY-2. Fairly sure they don't, but others will know, and you can look this up.

Once you understand that, you'll need to contact your PM&R program. Sooner the better, as that helps them find a replacement.

You'll need to get back in the Match (there are some R programs, where you can match in March 2018 for an R1 spot that begins July 2018) and then look simultaneously for any unexpectedly open positions. You'll have to be receptive to matching at an advanced position, which will mean you'll have to figure out what you are going to do from July 2018-June 2019. There is a point at which you have to make a "go-no go" decision about the Match, so if an unexpected position doesn't open up before then, you'll be committed to the Match. Again, I'm not as familiar with the rules and timeline for this, will take some investigation on your part.
 
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RadiologyPD, happy interview season! A couple of questions:

1) Does your program send out many invites before October 1st?
2) What is your take on why programs send out invites before the MSPEs are uploaded? Obviously the sooner they offer an applicant an interview the more likely they are to accept it, but it seems frivolous of programs to send many invites without having all the information possible on each student. Thanks for any insight you're able to provide on the matter!
 
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We do send out some invites before Oct. 1. About 50% of our slots go to people who are invited before Oct 1.

In our system, there are 4 types of “no-brainer” candidates for interview, meaning that time and time again we have realized that these people are going to get invited for interview at our place…so why not get them scheduled.

1. Students who have rotated with us (it’s our policy to invite for interview unless they really stunk up the rotation);
2. Students at our institution (again, we interview all unless there is an obvious issue);
3. Students who have just rocked it on our pre-interview metrics (usually AOA, with honors in most if not all of their core clerkships); and
4. Students who have an obvious tie to our area that have reasonably good pre-interview metric scores.

To review our pre-interview metric evaluation, see post # 9. Remember, we get a transcript before Oct. 1, it’s just the MSPE (Dean’s letter) that is held until Oct. 1. I can only assess a student’s clerkship performance IF I’ve seen a Dean’s letter from that institution last year OR it is clear from the transcript what % of students get honors vs. high pass vs. pass. If I’ve seen any dean’s letter from that institution last year, I use the percentages from last year as an approximation for this year (when I get this year’s dean’s letters, I will update).

My spreadsheet won’t calculate a pre-interview score until I get these percentages inputted for understanding the core clerkship grades. For those candidates in which I don't have that information, unless the student is in another category, I generally can’t send out an invite until I see the Dean’s letter.

The reason we send out invites earlier than Oct. 1 is to get these candidates “locked in”. If you are an outstanding candidate (#3 above) and are likely to get more interview offers than you can really accept, you may keep the ones you’ve already scheduled. We like to have these outstanding candidates check us out because we think our program is more impressive than others when you actually come and meet the people and kick the tires. The only way we can match these stellar candidates is to have them check us out. As for the others, I like to reduce their anxiety about whether or not they are going to get an interview with us if I already know that we are going to interview them. Helps them build a schedule around us also.

We use an automated program (Thalamus) to schedule interviews, so it's fairly malleable.
 
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Yes. Hard to extrapolate from one program's experience. ERAS will come out with some numbers in October or November, I believe, in which they show how many applicants to different fields compared to prior year(s) at the same point in the cycle.
 
RadiologyPD said:
We do send out some invites before Oct. 1. About 50% of our slots go to people who are invited before Oct 1.

In our system, there are 4 types of “no-brainer” candidates for interview, meaning that time and time again we have realized that these people are going to get invited for interview at our place…so why not get them schedule

To review our pre-interview metric evaluation, see post # 9. Remember, we get a transcript before Oct. 1, it’s just the MSPE (Dean’s letter) that is held until Oct. 1. I can only assess a student’s clerkship performance IF I’ve seen a Dean’s letter from that institution last year OR it is clear from the transcript what % of students get honors vs. high pass vs. pass. If I’ve seen any dean’s letter from that institution last year, I use the percentages from last year as an approximation for this year (when I get this year’s dean’s letters, I will update).

My spreadsheet won’t calculate a pre-interview score until I get these percentages inputted for understanding the core clerkship grades. For those candidates in which I don't have that information, unless the student is in another category, I generally can’t send out an invite until I see the Dean’s letter.

The reason we send out invites earlier than Oct. 1 is to get these candidates “locked in”. If you are an outstanding candidate (#3 above) and are likely to get more interview offers than you can really accept, you may keep the ones you’ve already scheduled. We like to have these outstanding candidates check us out because we think our program is more impressive than others when you actually come and meet the people and kick the tires. The only way we can match these stellar candidates is to have them check us out. As for the others, I like to reduce their anxiety about whether or not they are going to get an interview with us if I already know that we are going to interview them. Helps them build a schedule around us also.

We use an automated program (Thalamus) to schedule interviews, so it's fairly malleable.
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Hello RadiologyPD! Thank you for the awesome post! Talking to some of my friends in other medical schools, it seems like there is a pretty dramatic increase in number of applicants this cycle (maybe double or triple compared to last year). Given this increase, it is most likely that a greater number of applicants will fit the above criteria for receiving invites prior to 10/01. Assuming that other programs are using a similar matrix, does this mean there will be less invites being sent out after 10/01 compared to previous years?
 
It's not double or triple! That would be crazy. My guess is that for US grads might be up to 20% increase--which would still be a lot. I'm seeing fewer DO and IMG applicants but that just might be us, based on our match history.

We did not change our strategy for sending out invites prior to MSPE. This year it is at 50%. If anything, we have decreased this over the remote past, since we were finding that we really couldn't trust the transcripts to tell us relative performance, and as I've said before I don't think there is a meaningful performance difference in radiology residents who had board scores at 235 -240 compared to 270. Most Dean's letters do a better job of putting the relative performance into perspective--but it's still a pain in the xxx because many of them have "coded" terms and then you have to look elsewhere for the fine print to find out that "excellent" means "crappy" at that school. And even then, some of the Dean's letters do not distinguish. For example, if you go to Stanford medical school which some of our applicants do, I can never tell if you are the top student or the worst student. There are plenty of others that basically sort their students into "top tier" (top 25%), "middle tier" (next 74%), and "bottom tier" (1%).

Having said that, I am not so naive as to think these relative rankings by the Dean's letters are accurate. Problem is, I've got precious little else and I can only interview less than 20% of the applicants.

Bottom line, there should be plenty of interview invitations offered after Oct. 1. I can assure you that less than 50% are actually sent out before Oct. 1.
 
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Have you been noticing any changes in trends in DR and/or IR/DR applicants since the start of the new integrated IR/DR residency? I wonder if there has been an increase in applicants expressing interest in IR. I think many people are wondering how the IR/DR residency is going to change how applicants approach applying for either-or.
 
Maybe a few more specific mentions of IR interest. Also a few more personal statements saying "I'm interested in both procedures and diagnostics." There have always been applicants who have indicated an interest in IR in their personal statements even before the IR/DR residency. Remember, I'm a DR PD, so I don't see the personal statements applicants might be sending to IR/DR programs. I suspect they may be modified for some applicants.
 
When is it appropriate to send interest emails to programs? Should we email directly to the PD or someone else?

There are several programs I am very interested in but have no "real" (family, friends, SO) connection to that I would like to express interest in.
 
harambe4ever said:
When is it appropriate to send interest emails to programs? Should we email directly to the PD or someone else?

There are several programs I am very interested in but have no "real" (family, friends, SO) connection to that I would like to express interest in.
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To add to previous question, when is a good time to contact a Transitional year or preliminary program about a possible interview if you have a DR invite to the same university or community program?
 
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If you think you are a competitive candidate that might get overlooked because you appear to be geographically remote, I suppose now would be a good time to clarify a real interest in a particular program. Once MSPE is out and they invite everyone, it could be too late. If that is the case, be succinct but clear that you have that program ranked highly in your pre-interview "ranking" and why. It doesn't have to be family that connects you to a program/region--but be honest.

Note that this works only for those programs that may not be super popular. If you are trying to convince the UCSF PD that you really left your heart in SF after visiting because you love the wine country and wind surfing, don't bother...

As for TY or prelim programs, I don't know for sure...never been in a leadership role for those types of programs so don't know what resonates with them. Having said that, if you have a DR or IR interview in the same location and it's one that you are seriously considering, it seems like you should let them know that so that they know you are more serious about them.
 
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RadiologyPD said:
It's not double or triple! That would be crazy. My guess is that for US grads might be up to 20% increase--which would still be a lot.
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I participate in an online chat room for PDs. Current word on the street is that applications from US allopathic candidates are up, perhaps about 25%. So our experience of more applications from US seniors appears real.
 
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That's a big jump. One hypothesis is that the IR residency is pulling in applicants to DR programs also--attracting students to consider Radiology in general with some realizing that DR/ESIR is one way to get to IR. The radiology job market is perceived to be hot right now in some areas (like the midwest), where one PD said that R2 residents were signing contracts for jobs that they promise to take a few years down the line (admittedly, the person who posted that agrees it is rare even now at the R2 stage, but I'd never heard of it before).
 
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RadiologyPD said:
That's a big jump. One hypothesis is that the IR residency is pulling in applicants to DR programs also--attracting students to consider Radiology in general with some realizing that DR/ESIR is one way to get to IR. The radiology job market is perceived to be hot right now in some areas (like the midwest), where one PD said that R2 residents were signing contracts for jobs that they promise to take a few years down the line (admittedly, the person who posted that agrees it is rare even now at the R2 stage, but I'd never heard of it before).
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Thanks for taking the time to answer questions on this thread. I would like to ask a question:

How influential is a chairman for the final rank list? From what I understand, the PD decision is ultimately the deciding factor. In a situation where someone would be heavily supported by the chairman to be in their program, are there chances high at matching there?
 
All politics are local. Usually, the Chair understands that using political capital to "force" a resident selection isn't a good use of political capital and so doesn't excessively push any candidates. However, I have seen candidates who have done a lot of research with a powerful member of the faculty (including the Chair) get "favored status". I have also seen senior faculty try to push selection committees to take relatives, and unless the candidate is a no-brainer, it can get ugly because others see it as favoritism (which it is). As a PD, you want to give "favored candidates" (candidates who someone on the faculty loves due to professional or personal affiliations) the benefit of any doubt if their applications are on par to the standard chosen resident. The problem arises when the candidate does not have the performance history or credentials to compete on their own.

As a generalization, having strong support from a powerful person on the faculty works to your favor and should put you over the top if you are nearly good enough. If you are an amazing candidate, it's never a problem--the faculty then are grateful that you chose them due to your affiliations. My advice in general for applicants who aren't necessarily amazing but who have powerful family ties is to try to get the best residency other than the one that your advocate works at--unless your dad/mom is loved by all, or the politics in the department are extremely harmonious, it can be difficult to be a resident at a place where people think you don't deserve to be there.
 
Thanks for the great insight in all of your previous posts.

In both your specific program and in your experience in general, how different are interview/match considerations for applicants with a PhD? Particularly for PhDs in MRI engineering who have long term goals/interest in research > clinical radiology?

As a current M3, it's difficult to gauge where I will stand as an applicant, particularly to programs that align with my future goals. Turns out strong academic centers with top engineering programs are pretty competitive. How should I allocate the 4 LORs between non-MDs (ie my PI, or other big name faculty), and MDs (radiologists vs core clerkship faculty)? How much value is an away rotation at a reach institution vs spending that month in the lab and getting another paper out?

A meh step 1 score combined with each year's average creep is a source for a lot of stress for me.
 
I can only speak for my current program, and my experience at my prior position which was a long time ago.

The MRI PhD is a plus--I'm going to expect a letter from your PI or someone familiar with your work. If you don't have that, it makes me wonder about why not. As for the other letters, pick the ones that will be best (see my previous posts) BUT make sure at least 2 are clinical. Remember, we really only ask for 3--so 2 clinical and 1 from your PI will be fine. If there's another great one you want to add, go for it.

Your academic aspirations are a plus. Be sure to emphasize that.

Nevertheless, keep in mind that there is a caricature of the MD/PhD who can build an MR machine but can't read an MR. Don't come across as that person. Unfortunately, many PDs and selection committee members who have been around the block have seen an MD/PhD who had what used to be called Asperger's. I'm personally familiar with one that was brilliant in K-space but was forced out during residency because he/she was dangerous clinically. That person works for an equipment manufacturer now in the MR division.

If you are an M3 right now, do everything you can to do well on clinical rotations, even if that means "playing the game." The people selecting you for residency want to be sure you will do well in clinical radiology--well enough to run the service, take call without issues, appease the referring physicians, put together excellent dictations, etc., etc.

Your step 1 score wouldn't be a problem at my current place, but might be at my old place, depending on your definition of meh. If above 230, you'll probably be ok. If you can increase that on step 2, spend the time to do that--that will be better than another paper. Try not to be below average in your clerkship performance as expressed in your Dean's letter--if you are, you risk being seen as a cliche.

My advice to you is to never again state that "interest in research > clinical radiology" to anyone on a selection committee. You may win a Nobel Prize for research, but that doesn't help me as a PD if I'm worried you are going to prioritize research projects over studying for boards, or if you are going to be seeing every costochondral junction as a malignancy. I want you to be excited about clinical radiology because it will help you be a better researcher. You don't have to undersell your interest in research, BUT by all means don't make it seem that you have minimal interest in clinical radiology.

If you can "shine" in a short away rotation, then by all means go for it. It's an art that not everyone can pull off. You have to be able to smile, talk about the 49ers or Hamilton or Adele, and come across as real, not a kiss ass or a weirdo. Pick the place based on knowing that it will help you get into that place--not sure how you figure that out, maybe ask around.
 
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Thanks so much for answering all of our questions. This is extremely helpful. I am a 4th year student who has recently submitted ERAS application and awaiting for interview invites. I consider myself competitive based on last year's step average and 3rd year grades. However, I'm currently not receiving as many invites as I wanted too. Now I'm considering adding additional programs. I understand that most programs have already started sending out their invites but how helpful would it be for me getting more invites if I add more programs now. Would it be too late? Thank you so much in advance.
 
It's late. Application review fatigue has already set in for most PDs. If you add places, you may need to contact via email to alert them to your interest, as they may not even be checking for new applications regularly.
 
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Hi I heard after MSPE interview will start to rolling in quickly. However, this week has been a fairly quiet week for a lot people. I wonder how long does it normally take for programs to review MSPE and send out invites? thanks
 
Sorry, I don't really know the answer. I will say that the increased volume of applicants this year probably means that most programs aren't going to be able to be as fast as say 3 years ago, which was the nadir for applicant numbers.
 
For a "letter of interest"-type email to a program, should we email the program director or the program coordinator?
 
Is it now a good time to start emailing program coordinators or is it still too soon?
 
RadiologyPD said:
It's not double or triple! That would be crazy. My guess is that for US grads might be up to 20% increase--which would still be a lot. I'm seeing fewer DO and IMG applicants but that just might be us, based on our match history.

We did not change our strategy for sending out invites prior to MSPE. This year it is at 50%. If anything, we have decreased this over the remote past, since we were finding that we really couldn't trust the transcripts to tell us relative performance, and as I've said before I don't think there is a meaningful performance difference in radiology residents who had board scores at 235 -240 compared to 270. Most Dean's letters do a better job of putting the relative performance into perspective--but it's still a pain in the xxx because many of them have "coded" terms and then you have to look elsewhere for the fine print to find out that "excellent" means "crappy" at that school. And even then, some of the Dean's letters do not distinguish. For example, if you go to Stanford medical school which some of our applicants do, I can never tell if you are the top student or the worst student. There are plenty of others that basically sort their students into "top tier" (top 25%), "middle tier" (next 74%), and "bottom tier" (1%).

Having said that, I am not so naive as to think these relative rankings by the Dean's letters are accurate. Problem is, I've got precious little else and I can only interview less than 20% of the applicants.

Bottom line, there should be plenty of interview invitations offered after Oct. 1. I can assure you that less than 50% are actually sent out before Oct. 1.
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From what you have heard, are PDs sending out more interview invites this year to reflect the greater number of qualified applicants? Or is the number of invitations the same, but they are now more competitive to get? I'm wondering if once we've received an interview invite, our chance at matching at a given school is comparable to prior years, since the additional applications have already been screened out? Of course, with the additional applications, the average stats for interviewed applicants are likely higher as well.
 
My guess is the same number of invites. That is the case for our program. Conducting interviews is resource-intensive for programs. There's only so many you can do and only so many you can interview on any given day (if you do these in groups, as is the case with most programs).

So I believe your chance of matching at any given program once you interview is comparable to prior years.
 
Question regarding pre-interview dinner. If due to scheduling, an applicant is unable to attend the dinner, will that be a factor in determining his/her place on the rank list? And what is the best way to inform the program about not attending the dinner? Thank you!!
 
Not a factor at all.

The pre-interview dinner is 95% marketing for the program, and maybe 5% ax murderer identification (where the residents come back and tell you to be leery of someone because he/she is a weirdo). In our program, we purposefully do not have the residents evaluate candidates at the pre-interview dinner, it's supposed to make you (the applicant) relaxed and feel like you could be at the program, and give you a chance to get impressions from current residents about their experience.

I guess I thought most programs would ask you if you were making the pre-interview dinner or not--we do, since we need a headcount for the restaurant. If they aren't asking you, I guess you'd just tell the Program Coordinator.
 
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Hello radiology PD: what's are some good qualifications/credentials/experiences for a resident/fellow/ junior faculty to have if he is interested in radiology education and aspire to become an assistant PD/program director eventually?
 
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Resident/Fellow:
-Participate in your program's Education Committee. Most institutions have resident and/or fellow representatives.
-Join/participate in your institution's resident/fellow association--may have an Education committee within that that works with all programs
-Be involved with the ACR, especially your state's RFS (resident/fellow section)--this is actually a great way to network, see how other programs do things, etc
-Try to be a Chief Resident (not always possible, and at some programs not necessarily something you can/should "lobby" for as it might come off badly)
-Try to attend one or more AUR meetings (they accept posters, which may then qualify you for presentation funds from your program)--much of the meeting is focused on education issues. Most programs send their Chief Residents since the A3CR2 (chief resident association) meets at the same time, but you can go without being a chief (though you don't get to go to the sessions that are chief only).
-Organize/be involved in activities for medical student rotators in your program--it's good practice for organizing educational activities and will demonstrate your interest in education in tangible ways. There is an organization called AMSER to look into.

Junior faculty:
-institution specific (meaning the pathway sort of depends on program/institution specific activities that demonstrate your interest in post graduate medical education). Usually this entails Division-specific stuff (like being in charge of the educational experience of the residents/fellows who rotate through your division), Program-specific stuff (Education committee, medical student oversight), and Institution-specific stuff (GME education committees)
-be excellent in your interactions with medical students/residents/fellows (teaching, mentoring)
 
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Hello radiology PD: I know you only interview a few DO students. What are the most important factors when you choosing DO students for interview? Thank you very much!
 
RadiologyPD said:
In our program, we purposefully do not have the residents evaluate candidates at the pre-interview dinner, it's supposed to make you (the applicant) relaxed and feel like you could be at the program, and give you a chance to get impressions from current residents about their experience.
Click to expand...

A word of warning to applicants. Benign programs will act this way, but there are programs that use the pre-interview dinner to evaluate and even eliminate candidates. I remember one program that would gather its residents together after the dinner and the residents would basically vote people off the island. It made me a little sick. One person was dropped way down the rank list because one of the residents at the dinner didn't like the candidate's hair. I kid you not. For some reason the PD thought this was a good way to evaluate candidates.

SO... I imagine most programs are like RadiologyPD's and screen only for psychos, but not all programs are benign and residents can be unbelievably petty with their comments. If the residents at the pre-interview dinner tell you that they are not evaluating you (which they should), then I would trust them. If they do not tell you this, then be on your better behavior.
 
Local connection (one had done a rotation with us, others had rotated in other departments at our institution and had letters from people we knew), top quartile of class, high clinical performance. I have recently been using Sigma Sigma Phi status to sort through the applicants.

It would be nice to understand the relative strength of the DO schools. I really don't know which are "better" than others.
 
RadiologyPD said:
Local connection (one had done a rotation with us, others had rotated in other departments at our institution and had letters from people we knew), top quartile of class, high clinical performance. I have recently been using Sigma Sigma Phi status to sort through the applicants.

It would be nice to understand the relative strength of the DO schools. I really don't know which are "better" than others.
Click to expand...

Interesting!
1. For the one rotated in radiology: I thought it is hard to judge someone in radiology rotation except for maybe his/her personality. How does he/she impress your program?
2. For the one rotated in other departments: If he/she is interested in radiology, why rotating in other departments?
 
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